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Browse: Home > Cell Phones, Gadgets and Distracted Driving

Cell Phones, Gadgets and Distracted Driving

Smartphone Distractions, Drinking Help Spur Rising Pedestrian Death Toll FairWarining Reports

Smartphone Distractions, Drinking Help Spur Rising Pedestrian Death Toll

By Paul Feldman on April 4, 2017

Editor's note: See update at bottom of story.

Pedestrian deaths are surging across the nation, and analysts are putting much of the blame on drivers and walkers who are looking at their smartphones instead of watching where they are going. Tipsy walking also is part of the problem, with one in three victims legally drunk when they were struck and killed. The latest…

Posted in FairWarning Reports | Tagged Auto and Highway Safety, Cell Phones, Gadgets and Distracted Driving | 2 Comments

Revisiting a Red State-Blue State Divide FairWarining Reports

Revisiting a Red State-Blue State Divide

States With Worst Highway Death Rates Favored Trump -- Why?

By Stuart Silverstein on February 1, 2017

November’s presidential contest was bizarre in many ways, but there is one peculiarity that pundits haven’t pounced on: The states with the worst rates of traffic deaths in the country went solidly for Donald Trump while Hillary Clinton swept states with the lowest fatality rates. That odd association between traffic deaths and how states voted…

Posted in FairWarning Reports | Tagged Auto and Highway Safety, Cell Phones, Gadgets and Distracted Driving | 10 Comments

A billboard in Sarasota, Florida FairWarining Reports

Evidence Mounts of Distraction Risks from Digital Billboards Along Roadways

By Paul Feldman on March 30, 2016

Digital billboards clearly catch the eye of passing motorists. But what is also increasingly clear is that such distractions can heighten safety risks in heavy traffic and other complex driving conditions, a long-time roadway researcher says. That conclusion by Jerry Wachtel, a traffic safety consultant and one-time Federal Highway Administration staffer, came from his recent…

Posted in FairWarning Reports | Tagged Auto and Highway Safety, Cell Phones, Gadgets and Distracted Driving | 3 Comments

A billboard in Sarasota, Florida FairWarining Reports

Highway Agency Takes a Hit Over Safety Report on Electronic Billboards

By Myron Levin on February 9, 2015

Why did the billboard cross the road? It sounds like the opening line of a corny joke, but it’s actually a question raised by a baffling glitch in a Federal Highway Administration study on the safety of electronic billboards. Billboards that seem magically to have moved from one side of the highway to the other…

Posted in FairWarning Reports | Tagged Auto and Highway Safety, Cell Phones, Gadgets and Distracted Driving | 3 Comments

Feds Leaving Cities, States in Dark on Billboard Safety FairWarining Investigates

Feds Leaving Cities, States in Dark on Billboard Safety

By Myron Levin on February 14, 2012

While battles flare in communities across the country over digital billboards, many state and local officials have hoped that a study launched by the Federal Highway Administration in 2007 would clarify key traffic safety issues. But the results of the politically sensitive research are long overdue, and still are a mystery. Records obtained by FairWarning suggest the reason why the study has remained under wraps: Experts say it was botched.

Posted in FairWarning Investigates | Tagged Cell Phones, Gadgets and Distracted Driving | 4 Comments

Safety Agency Urges Complete Ban on Cellphone Use by Drivers

on December 14, 2011

A federal safety agency, in an unprecedented move, is urging states to adopt bans on all non-emergency cellphone use by drivers. The recommendation by the National Transportation Safety Board, an advisory and investigative agency, would apply to hands-free as well as hand-held devices. As The New York Times reports, that would go beyond any of…

Posted in Warning Wire | Tagged Cell Phones, Gadgets and Distracted Driving | Leave a comment

Smartphones, Dumb Drivers

on December 12, 2011

Can you safely talk on a cellphone — or for that matter, check your email or scroll through Google Maps — while driving? Well, of course you can. But those other folks with their hands off the wheel and their eyes off the road are a public menace. Unfortunately, that sums up the attitude of…

Posted in Commentary | Tagged Cell Phones, Gadgets and Distracted Driving | Leave a comment

Truckers, Bus Drivers Face U.S. Ban on Handheld Cellphones

on December 6, 2011

Federal regulators have imposed a ban starting next month on the use of handheld cellphones by interstate truckers and bus drivers. The ban, intended to curb crashes due to distracted driving, falls short of a recommendation issued in September by the National Transportation Safety Board but opposed by the trucking industry. That agency — which…

Posted in Warning Wire | Tagged Auto and Highway Safety, Cell Phones, Gadgets and Distracted Driving | Leave a comment

Hit by Criticism, Ford to Add Electronic Safety Features for Explorer Models

on October 28, 2011

Automakers lately have touted lots of new electronic options for their cars, including technology that lets drivers use voice commands and touch screens to make and receive calls and listen to their text messages. As FairWarning reported last month, though, many of those new gizmos worry safety advocates. They say that the automakers — even…

Posted in Warning Wire | Tagged Auto and Highway Safety, Cell Phones, Gadgets and Distracted Driving | 2 Comments

Poll Finds High-Tech Safety Features Are Off Drivers’ Radar Screens

on October 14, 2011

Shoppers in the market for a new car can consider a dizzying array of electronic options. The possibilities include everything from video and fancy sound systems to safety features designed to help drivers avoid hazards. Yet among American consumers, safety options appear to be taking a back seat to the infotainment gizmos. At least that…

Posted in Warning Wire | Tagged Auto and Highway Safety, Cell Phones, Gadgets and Distracted Driving | 1 Response

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FairWarning Reports

Labor Department Waters Down Injury Reporting Rule Targeted by Business

By Eli Wolfe

A requirement that employers disclose more information about worker injuries to safety officials and the public has been scaled back by the Trump administration.

Read more »

With Smack-Talking Invective, Lawyer Groups Appeal to Public as One Big Jury Pool

By Stuart Silverstein

Athletes are legendary trash talkers. But the business groups that howl about bogus lawsuits and plaintiff lawyers who claim to fight for ordinary folks victimized by corporations aren’t exactly slouches either.

Read more »

Law Puts Big Retailers on the Hook for Pay Owed to Truckers

By Eli Wolfe

For years, truck drivers hauling billions of dollars of clothing, appliances and other consumer goods from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have complained about rampant wage law violations by the trucking firms that hire them. The alleged abuses include failing to pay minimum wages and overtime.

Read more »

Feds Find Memory Boosters Were Falsely Labeled But Refuse to Say Which Ones

By Stuart Silverstein

Read more »

Federal Vaccine Court Quietly Pays Out Billions

By Eli Wolfe

A chickenpox outbreak at a private school in North Carolina drew extensive national news coverage in November. The thrust of most stories was the public health threat of unvaccinated children and superstitious beliefs about vaccine risks.

Read more »

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